Name: Cookie Dough Truffles
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: ¼ cups Unsalted Butter, Softened To Room Temperature; 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, Softened To Room Temperature; ½ cups Brown Sugar; 1 Tablespoon Molasses; ¾ cups All-purpose Flour; ¾ cups Quick Cooking Oats; ½ teaspoons Salt; ½ cups Mini Chocolate Chips (optional); 12 ounces, weight Vanilla-flavored Candy Melts; ½ cups Assorted Sprinkles (optional - For Decorating)

Why it works: Oats and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,532 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Oats + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,532 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Butter + cream cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,747 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Oat	1/2 cup dry (40g)	154
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Cookie Dough Truffles